Budget cuts are hitting probes into crimes by police, says watchdog
INVESTIGATIONS into serious criminality by officers could be delayed by further budget cuts, the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has warned.
Dr Michael Maguire said his office’s ability to deal with all public complaints could be undermined as he urged a rethink from paymasters at the Justice Department.
Nearly 400 historical cases are under investigation and most involve murders. The watchdog’s budget has been cut by 3%.
Dr Maguire said: “This situation cannot be permitted to continue.”
On top of scrutinising modern policing, the Ombudsman has been investigating detectives’ handling of a range of historic killings, including those associated with the Shankill Butchers.
The sadistic loyalist gang committed 19 savage murders, torturing and mutilating random innocent Catholics with butcher knives and axes before cutting their throats, during a reign of terror spanning some of the darkest days of the Troubles.
Dr Maguire (right) said: “The impact of reduced resources is significant and in particular it has meant that we have been unable to progress some particular- ly complex and resource-intensive cases in a timely fashion. The office submitted a number of business cases to the department covering both history and current cases and it is imperative that funding is released in order that these cases are progressed.”
The department has financed one of the investigations and said the indicative allocation to the Ombudsman was “protected” to a 3% baseline reduction.
Funding has been reduced from £9.5m in 2012/13 to £8.5m in 2016/17 — a fall of £967,000, or a tenth.
Dr Maguire added: “A further cycle of funding reductions will lead to a decrease in the ser- vice provided by the office. This means an inability to conduct timely investigations, including investigations into serious criminality by police officers.
“There is a potential it will also reshape the functions of the office by the back door, by undermining our ability to deal with all public complaints against the police.”
In a recent court case involving the Ombudsman, which is subject to appeal, a judge said the source of the problem besetting it was the failure of the Justice Department to provide adequate resources.
A Department of Justice spokesman said it “recognises and continues to
support the im- portant work of the Office of Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI)”.
“OPONI is an independent office and how it allocates funding to history investigations and other business areas is a matter for the Ombudsman,” he said.
The spokesman said that a request by the Ombudsman for extra funding in order to “take forward a significant piece of work” had been funded in full.
He added: “The OPONI budget has consistently been one of the most protected by the department. For example, for 2016-17 the starting point for the department of justice budget was a reduction of 5.7%, however the department protected OPONI to a reduction of 2%.”